JVC DR-MH50 review

As with most DVD recorders, the DR-MH50 has modes that fit either one or two hours of high-quality material on a 4.7GB disc, plus modes for up to a maximum of eight hours if your preference is for quantity over quality. JVC has also implemented a cool feature called 'Free Rate' mode, which will automatically fit a recording within a designated amount of space to the maximum quality level. For example, if you want to dub across a short episode of a TV programme from the hard drive to the end of a disc, you can let the machine take care of the whole procedure. The results are pretty good, but the size of the hard drive gives you more than enough capacity to leave your treasured items on the hard drive for easy access.

We were impressed by the user help system on the JVC, which comes in the form of FAQs in the on-screen help system. If you're having trouble with any of the connections, it provides helpful diagrams to explain what the solution might be. It's a brilliant alternative to having to dig out the manual, and it's something we'd like to see all manufacturers include.

Continuing the ease-of-use theme, the system is also compatible with VideoPlus, and you can set up to 16 individual recordings in advance. As you'd expect from a hard disk recorder, it always buffers the current programme to the hard drive, but its capacity is so huge you can buffer up to three hours of material in total. The recorder then has the ability to RetroActively record it, by simply selecting the start and finish points from the archived material. So if you reach the end of a movie, even one as long as The Godfather, and decide you want to see it again (if, for example, you fell asleep), you can save it all to the hard drive afterwards. Such powerful user options were unthinkable only a few years ago, and it will certainly change the way you watch television if you're new to hard drive recording.

As we mentioned, the AV input isn't RGB Scart compatible, which means that if you have a Freeview, cable or Sky box, you have the unfortunate choice of resorting to a standard Scart cable or using S-video round the front. We thought we'd finally seen the end of non-RGB recording once the budget manufacturers managed to include the feature on their sub-£200 players, but it seems that you can't take it for granted just yet. We kick up a lot of fuss over this, because people with digital TVs deserve better than to be plunged back into the days of a picture with poor definition and washed-out colours.

While little can touch the sheer capacity of the DR-MH50's hard drive, we think the Toshiba RD-XS34 offers much better value for money, offering adequate storage, excellent usability and a fuller features list. Toshiba's model also offers a much better selection of recording quality levels.

The DR-MH50 will also play MP3, WMA and JPEG files, but omits DivX compatibility.

Performance
JVC has offered some excellent DVD players in the past, and the DR-MH50 is no different. Playback through RGB Scart or component is wonderfully detailed, and with the latter, it's also beautifully smooth. We tested it on a Hitachi plasma panel, and the JVC provided a completely judder-free image. The component inputs can also be changed between progressive scan and interlaced video, but only the more antiquated flat screens will need to use the latter.

In case we haven't made it abundantly clear already, you shouldn't expect too much when it comes to recordings. They're not particularly detailed and colours tend to bleed into each other, but if you're used to analogue TV and you use one of the higher quality modes, recordings are indistinguishable. Audio is recorded in standard stereo and there's no option to drop the quality manually. If you choose the SP recording mode on the hard drive, you'll reach the right mix between video quality and storage capacity, and you can drop the quality down manually or automatically with the Free Rate mode when dubbing to hard drive.

Edited by Mary Lojkine
Additional editing by Nick Hide